


I is for Isolation

by Publisher021



Series: Publisher021's Whumptober2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst, Depressed Steve Rogers, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Not Happy, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Whump, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 17:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20911535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Publisher021/pseuds/Publisher021
Summary: The ice had kept him it's frigid cage for over seventy years. He'd been alone and isolated for all that time.Steve's starting to get used to being alone.





	I is for Isolation

**Author's Note:**

> I know that i already posted this but as I struggled with the formatting and everything, I have had to repost it.
> 
> Written for prompt 7 (isolation)
> 
> Enjoy!

>   
  


Before he got the serum, he wasn't that good at going out and seeing the world. Sure, he went outside and played ball with Bucky and a few others down the street in Brooklyn, but when it came to getting a date with the gals, he was as unpopular as the kid who sat at the back of the classroom. Which meant that nobody really saw him or liked him.

Except for Bucky. 

Bucky was his best friend, his brother. But sometimes, Bucky crowded him so much that he couldn't breathe, couldn't think. So he went to the roof of their apartment to seek solace in the quiet of the sun setting over the Brooklyn skyline.

And when he tried, actually tried to get a date for once, the girls looked right passed him and zoned in on Bucky. After all, he was a looker. He was healthier, was more good looking and charming. None of which were things he was.

So he was often surrounded, but still lonely.

When the Valkyrie crashed into the depths of the ocean, the ice took hold of him in their claws and held him tight in their vice-like grip thousands of feet below so that no thermal scanners could pick up on his temperature or the wreckage of the plane.

He was isolated in a cage sculpted from pure ice, lost to the world for seventy years.

And when he woke, the world welcomed him into their 'open arms', trying to welcome him back to society.

But he was lonely and left alone to navigate a strange and foreign world. 

He doesn't feel very welcome. 

After the Battle of Manhattan comes and goes, and he and the team are left on cleanup duty, he goes home to an empty apartment, undresses into comfortable clothing only to eat a subpar meal and fall into bed just to wake up the next morning and restart the entire cycle over again.

He's alone and not even SHIELD is a welcome reprieve anymore. He thought that maybe they'd send him on missions with other field agents, maybe he'd get to feel that semblance of actually belonging to a place and being included in on something instead of excluded and treated as something alien.

That doesn't happen and the feeling of being alone never fully dissipates, merely gets slightly forgotten.

When Tony's invitation (read: order) to move into the tower comes, he's not exactly thrilled. Will the team only accept him as their Captain? Or will they accept him as Steve Rogers?

He decides only time will tell and bites the bullet by accepting Stark's offer on moving into the tower. A week later he's standing in the foyer and being led by a secretary to an elevator that he's told will lead him straight to the common room of what is believed to be the top floors of the newly named Avengers Tower.

He's right and a few months into living at the tower with a team that has become friendlier over time shows him that they only know the Captain. They don't understand him, won't take the time to get to know him. Not Steve Rogers.

They're almost as bad as the junior agents that were in charge of re-educating him in the twenty-first century. They can't tell that he's struggling with adjusting and them making jokes and playing pranks aren't making it any easier on him, the nights he spends laying awake at night becoming more frequent.

He's still lonely.

He misses Bucky. Wishes for all the times that Bucky spent overcrowding him because he knows now that he's in the future nobody really understands him. The future is not for someone like him.

So he spends his time in his room and learns, tries to see what's so special about the generation that spends so much time engrossed in their devices than having proper face to face conversations. He can understand why Tony gets so excited when he talks about the future, can now see why Tony is labeled as a futurist. 

Tony's ideas are bright, but he burns even brighter. And when Tony smiles at him, he feels breathless, because Tony is starting to see the real him.

But when the night comes around, and the team spends dinner together, the conversation doesn't fully extend to him, beyond trying to keep the conversation polite for his sake. He's once again being excluded and he thinks it might be okay.

It's not.

_ He wants to go back. He wants to go back. He wants to go back. _

He's still alone.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and kudos mean love so please comment and leave kudos. Also, I might add another chapter on to this if I feel like it later on.


End file.
